The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-12
General Convention.
HOME MISSIONS OR CHURCH
EXTENSION.
BY REV. j. M. PULLMAN, d. d.


l met friend whom had not seen for
a number of years. He said, among
other things, 81 see the Universalist
General Convention is in session here"
Eyes" "Well, l suppose you have
come together now to disband." | said,
sNo; not that / know of. Why dis
band ?'' "Why, because you have no
longer any reason for being" "Why
not ?'' l asked. Because your work
is done; the intelligence of Christen-
dom has fully accepted your teaching"
Well, thought and said that this was
the poorest reason for dying had ever
heard of. If, indeed, might believe
that what my friend said was true,
then, instead of being a reason for our
coming together to close our records,
rejoice in our accomplished work, shake
hands and disband, it would be our rea-
son for redoubling every energy to deal
wisely with the world that had thus
fallen at our feet.
l will not waste your time by even
suggesting the reasons why our work is
not done. We may, indeed, rejoice in
an assured progress but we may not
befool ourselves by shallow boasting.
1 have one single aim tonight. 1t is to
try and suggest the chief reason why
we should extend our massive and ener-
getic faith throughout this land, where
our battle has been fought and our
right to exist has been won against an
opposition that makes our record album
dainty heroic. Why should we labor to
extend the Universalist church in
America
Now, you must be good and patient
with me, because in order to give the
reason as l want to, 1 must begin at the
beginning. What is Universalism 1t
is distinctively the ethical interpreta-
ton of Christianity. From the moral
perfection of God it asserts the moral
perfectibility of Gods creatures. From
the character ascribed to the Divine
Being by his highest interpreter, Jesus
the Christ; and from the disclosure
made by the same great authority of
the nature of man, Universalism asserts
a final moral harmony between God
and man.
1. The first proposition of the Uni
versalist faith is that evil, though for
midable is vulnerable. 1t can be, and
it must be, overcome. l find the salient
aspect of this life to be the struggle
with evil with inherited defect, weak
ness, ignorance, selishness and malice;
mans attempt to throw off his brute
inheritance; to ''move upward, working
out the beast, and let the ape and tiger
die.' 1 find religions valuable and
helpful to men, in proportion as they
inspire them with courage and hope.
The soul of all religions is the faith that
evil is vulnerable and can be overcome.
Universalism is the first absolutely COM
plete expression of this faith. l am
Universalist because would not have
evil endure forever, and there is no
proof that it can endure forever. So
tremendous and unwelcome PROPOSE
ton as that evil is remediless and end
less, can only be proved by the event.
So long as we cannot even explain evil,
we have no right to predict its final re-
suits. So long as those results are I'M
reached, we are mortgaged to eternal
faith and unceasing effort. find that
faith in the vulnerability of evil has
been always the inspiration of the
worlds strong men. Jesus, with his
ssAnd I, if l be lifted up" and Paul,
with his-''He must reign till he hath
put all his enemies under his feet, " are
the Christian samples. The creeds of
despair are the creeds Of faithlessness
and ignorance. A final moral harmony
of the universe is the strong mans
faith, inspiring his noblest effort, and
satisfying at once his understanding,
his conscience and his affections. There
is no authority in what we know of the
past or see of the present, in the nature
of man or in the character of God, for
the creeds of eternal ruin and despair.
2. The second proposition of the
Universalist faith is that man is him.
self the instrument through which evil
is to be overcome. l find that nobody
is going to save me in the sense of over
coming my evil for me. BY no miracle
of interposition will God interfere with
the education of our race through the
conflict with evil. The teachers and
saviours of the race are the men who
inspire us to work out our own saliva
tion. The blood that is to save us runs
in our own veins. 1t is only reinforced
by the blood of Calvary. "The weight
of the whole universe is on the Shout
ders of every moral agent, to keep him
to his task" Weakness finds help, in
decision finds its determining crisis,
blindness its light and ignorance its
guide, but along the road of conquest
over his own evil every man must him
self go. He will never be allowed to
give it up, because giving up would be
the death sentence of his soul. The
mightiest forces that vlsibly operate in
personal and national history on this